Pan-Germanism

Pan-Germanism is a nationalist political ideology that supports the unification of all German and Germanic-speaking peoples into a single nation-state known as Grossdeutschland ("Greater Germany"). Pan-Germanism first developed at the time of the Reunification of Germany, and it adopted openly ethnocentric and racist policies from the late 19th century onwards. Under Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany annexed regions home to volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans living outside of Germany), and he sought to create lebensraum ("living space") for the Germanic peoples by conquering new territories and either resettling or exterminating their original inhabitants. After the end of World War II in 1945, Pan-Germanism became a taboo ideology.